What We Teach

These statements of belief uphold the foundational beliefs of Christian Orthodoxy and represent a commitment to a common Statement of Faith, which we summarise as both Classically Evangelical and Reformed.

The Holy Trinity

There is one God: infinite, eternal, almighty and perfect in holiness, truth and love. In the unity of the Godhead, there are three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-existent, co-equal and co-eternal. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father. Yet each is truly Deity. One God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God the Father

God the Father is the Creator of heaven and earth. By His word and for His glory, He freely and supernaturally created the world out of nothing. Through the same word, He daily sustains all creation. He rules over all and, together with the Son and the Spirit, is sovereign over all things such that there is no aspect of reality outside of His ultimate control. God’s rule extends to all things, His plans and purposes cannot be thwarted. He is faithful to every promise, works all things together for good to those who love Him and, in His unfathomable grace, gave His Son, Jesus Christ, for mankind’s redemption. He made all things for the praise of His glory and intends for man, in particular, to live in fellowship with Himself.

God the Son

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is the eternal Word made Flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He is fully God and fully man. Through Him, all things came into being and were created. He was before all things, and in Him, all things hold together by the word of His power. He is perfect in nature, teaching and obedience and is the Saviour for His Church, having shed His blood and died a vicarious death on the cross. By His death in our place, He revealed divine love and upheld divine justice, removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. Redeeming us from sin, He rose bodily from the grave on the third day, victorious over death and the powers of darkness and performing many convincing proofs of His resurrection. He ascended into heaven where, at God’s right hand, He intercedes for His people and rules as Lord over all, awaiting His return. He is the Head of His body, the Church, and should be adored, loved, served and obeyed by all.

God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Through the proclamation of the Gospel, He persuades men to repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord. By the same Spirit, a person is led to trust in divine mercy. The Holy Spirit unites believers to Jesus Christ in faith, brings about the new birth and dwells within the regenerate. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify the Son who, in turn, came to glorify the Father. He will lead the Church into a right understanding and rich application of the truth of God’s Word. He is to be respected, honoured and worshiped as God, the Third Person of the Trinity.

The Holy Scriptures

The Holy Scriptures (the sixty six Books of the Bible), are the inspired Word of God and our all sufficient rule for faith and practice and are given as the basis for belief, fellowship and ministry. We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, namely the Old and New Testaments in their original writings. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is infallible, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us, all in all things necessary to our salvation, and is absolutely supreme and sufficient in authority in all matters. The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man and does not simply contain the Word of God, but is, in reality, the complete revelation and very Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and to which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.

Man

God made man—male and female—in His own image, as the crown of creation so that man might glorify Him through enjoying fellowship with Him. Tempted by Satan, man rebelled against God. Being estranged from his Maker yet responsible to Him, man became subject to divine wrath, inwardly depraved and, apart from a special work of grace, utterly incapable of returning to God. This depravity is radical and pervasive. It extends to his mind, will and affections. Unregenerate man lives under the dominion of sin and Satan. He is at enmity with God, hostile toward God and hateful of God. Fallen, sinful people, whatever their character or attainments, are lost and without hope apart from salvation in Christ alone.

Salvation of Man

There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer which includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification of the believer. Salvation is not dependent on the desire and decision of man, but is grounded instead in God’s authorship and eternal decree which excludes boasting and promotes humility. Though man is responsible for his sin, God both chooses and draws those He would save to Himself and in so doing overcomes their natural resistance to the Gospel. While not violating the free will of man, and is the glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and being infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. Those whom Christ saves may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith to salvation.

The Church

God, by His Word and Spirit, creates and builds His Church by calling sinful men out of the whole human race into the fellowship of Christ’s body. By the same Word and Spirit, He builds, guides and preserves His Church which is made up of those who have become genuine followers of Jesus Christ and have personally appropriated the Gospel. The Church exists to worship and glorify God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It also exists to serve Him by faithfully doing His will on earth. This service involves a commitment to see the Gospel preached and Churches planted in the entire world. The ultimate mission of the Church is to bring glory to God by making disciples. Upon conversion, newly redeemed men and women are added to a local Church in which they devote themselves to teaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper and prayer. All members of the Church are to be a vital and committed part of a local Church. In this context, they are called to live out the implications of the Gospel as the people of God and demonstrate the reality of the kingdom of God. In the context of the local Church, God’s people receive pastoral care and oversight and the opportunity to steward their gifts for His glory and the good of others.

The Gospel

We believe the Gospel is the good news of what God has graciously accomplished for sinners through the sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection of his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, namely our forgiveness from sin and complete justification before God; this Gospel is also the foundation for our confidence in the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom, and the consummation of his purpose for all creation in the new heavens and new earth. This Gospel is centered in Christ, who is the foundation for the life of the Church, and is our only hope for eternal life; this Gospel is not proclaimed if Christ’s penal substitutionary death and bodily resurrection are not central to our message. This Gospel is not only the means by which people are saved, but also the truth and power by which people are sanctified; it is the truth of the Gospel that enables us to genuinely and joyfully do what is pleasing to God and to grow in progressive conformity to the image of Christ.

Water Baptism

We believe that baptism, by single immersion, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is enjoined on all who have repented and have believed in Christ as Saviour and Lord, and that it is symbolic of our identification with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. It signifies that our former way of life has been put to death and vividly depicts a person’s release from the mastery of sin

Holy Communion

The Lord’s Supper is to be observed only by those who have become genuine followers of Christ. We believe that the Lord’s Supper, consisting of the elements of bread and the fruit of the vine, and are the symbols expressing a memorial of his sufferings and death and a prophecy of his second coming, and is enjoined on all believers “until He comes”. This ordinance is to be administered by the Church and symbolises the breaking of Christ’s body and the shedding of His blood on our behalf and is to be observed repeatedly throughout the Christian life as a sign of continued participation in the atoning benefits of Christ’s death. As we come to the table with an attitude of faith and self-examination, we remember and proclaim the death of Christ, receive spiritual nourishment for our souls and signify our unity with other members of Christ’s body.
Gifts and Empowerment of the Spirit

We believe in the present day operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are available today and are to be eagerly desired and practiced in submission to the Spirit speaking through the Scripture. The Holy Spirit empowers believers for Christian witness and service. The promise of the Father is freely available to all who believe in Jesus Christ, enabling them to exercise the gifts He sovereignly bestows for ministry and mission. The Holy Spirit desires to continually fill each believer with power to bear witness to the Gospel in the world and imparts His gifts for the edification of the body of Christ, His Church.

Moral equality of male and female

Both men and women are together created in the divine image and are therefore equal before God as persons, possessing the same moral dignity and value, and have equal access to God through faith in Christ. Men and women are together the recipients of spiritual gifts designed to empower them for ministry in the local Church and beyond. Therefore, women are to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered to utilise their gifting in ministry, in service to the body of Christ, and through teaching in ways that are consistent with the Word of God. Both husbands and wives are responsible to God for spiritual nurture and vitality in the home, but God has given to the man primary responsibility to lead his wife and family in accordance with the servant-leadership and sacrificial love characterised by Jesus Christ. This principle of male headship should not be confused with, nor give any hint of, domineering control. Rather, it is to be the loving, tender and nurturing care of a godly man who is himself under the kind and gentle authority of Jesus Christ. The Elders/Pastors of each local Church have been granted authority under the headship of Jesus Christ to provide oversight and to teach/preach the Word of God in corporate assembly for the building up of the body.

The Family

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His Church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to Biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on Biblical truth. Children are to honour and obey their parents in the Lord.

The Disciple and Godly order in Society

All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in their own lives and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.

Mission

The Church has a clear Biblical mandate to look beyond its own community to the neighbourhood, the nation, and the world as a whole; thus mission is not an optional program in the Church but an essential element in the identity of the Church. We are called to make Christ known through the Gospel and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring his Lordship to bear on every dimension of life. Our aim is that Jesus Christ would be more fully formed in every believer and fully known in all the world. We are responsible neither to retreat from our culture nor to conform to it, but with humility, through the Spirit and the truth of the Gospel, to engage it boldly as we seek its transformation and submission to the Lordship of Christ. The primary way we fulfil this mission is through the planting of Churches and the training of their leaders and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Consummation

The consummation of all things includes the future, physical, visible, personal and glorious return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the translation of those alive in Christ, the judgment of the just and the unjust, and the fulfilment of Christ’s kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. In the consummation, Satan, with his hosts and all those outside Christ, are finally separated from the benevolent presence of God, enduring eternal punishment, but the righteous, in glorious bodies, will live and reign with Him forever, serving Him and giving Him unending praise and glory. Then the eager expectation of creation will be fulfilled, and the whole earth shall proclaim the glory of God, who makes all things new.

*Anyone pursuing membership and baptism must understand and agree with the above beliefs. We understand the interpretation of secondary issues may vary from person to person. Therefore, we desire to be charitable with those who may interpret secondary issues in a different manner. Our theological distinctives have been compiled in such a manner as to be based on the historical foundations of what the Church have learned about Gods nature and purpose over the centuries from the Holy Scriptures in both Councils, Creeds and Confessions.

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Gospel Community Church is a Reformed Church in Adelaide, An Evangelical Church in Adelaide, A Bible Preaching Church in Adelaide, A Gospel Preaching Church in Adelaide, An expositional preaching Church in Adelaide, An Acts 29 Church in Adelaide, A Gospel Coalition Church in Adelaide the City of Churches.